Many containers hold materials that are designed to be systematically released from the container once a seal has been removed from the container. By way of explanation and not limitation, toner cartridges, for example, have seals that are in place to prevent toner leakage from occurring during shipment. These seals must be removed prior to installation and printing. Unfortunately, what is obvious to manufacturers is not always obvious to end users. Often times, customers forget to remove the seal, also called a pull strip, and/or toner dam, from the toner cartridge. This generates expensive phone calls to manufacturers, increasing warranty costs to the manufacturer and stress to the end-user.
A wide variety of prior art solutions have been attempted. So called automatic seal removers have been incorporated with prior art printer mechanisms. Unfortunately, the prior art printer mechanisms that are designed to automatically remove toner dams/seals are expensive, complicated and prone to failure.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing an apparatus and method that automatically removes seals from containers that is inexpensive and essentially foolproof such that containers with seals that are to be removed prior to use are removed as an integral part of the process of removing the container from shipment packaging.